Designing home turns into fun, games

“Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.” W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), English playwright and novelist, “The Summing Up” (1938)

Call it what you like — dream building, window shopping or actual house shopping — there is an event going on to whet your appetite and feed your passion for beautiful, over-the-top homes and inspiring, creative design. It’s definitely excess.

The Las Vegas Parade of Homes is once again “showing off.” The Parade is an initiative that allows you to visit divinely designed homes and leave with a hope chest full of ideas. This year, there are 13 homes being featured and, for the low price of $25, you can indulge your fantasies. This coming weekend is your last chance to see these jaw-dropping properties. Don’t miss it.

One of the homes featured in the Parade is the American Society of Interior Designers’ Showcase house — its first in the Las Vegas area. So, it’s a really big deal for ASID and the designers who devoted their time, talents and contacts to make this home absolutely breathtaking.

Each room is designed by a different designer. They are often given some guidelines by the owner, but more than likely take their cues from the house itself. The participating designers in the showcase house are Anne Miller, Kevin Johnson, Kellie Miller, Nina Rinck, Alice Roussos, Karlene Lashua, Laura Jane Spina, Laura Fullow, Bobbie Jo Kinsey, Lisa Bada, Stephen Leon, Renee Gangeness, Elizabeth Stefanich, David Paetzel, Diane Cabral, James Drewry and yours truly.

Earlier this year, I moved back to my roots in interior design and joined Fielden & Partners, an interior design and space-planning company.

I participated in the showcase house through Fielden & Partners, and feel very fortunate to have been one of the designers selected. My area included the family room, the game room and the circular bar located in the central core of the home. Both rooms feature sliding glass walls that open completely to the breathtaking pool, spa and river (and an outdoor kitchen that rivals most folks’ indoor one.)

The house was designed to be an entertainment home, and my goal was to show the possibilities for the space and at the same time create a comfortable, easy interior for the homeowners.

There are eight TVs in my area — yes, that’s right, eight. If you lived in this home, you would never fight over the remote again, everybody would be able to see whatever program they wanted to and be able to sneak a peek at seven others at the same time. (By the way, there is also a home theater with cushy leather seats for 15, plus a bar with seating for eight more.)

The family room is anchored by a delightfully multicolored carpet from NW Rugs and includes a large comfy sectional sofa (Beverly Showroom, World Market Center) and a bench for additional seating (Haziza, World Market.) An acrylic cocktail table (Haziza) shimmers in the middle to hold drinks and snacks or a favorite game.

Just for fun I included a small table with a checkerboard/chess top (Haziza) in the room and a very large, brightly colored tic-tac-toe game (Haziza) for those times when there’s absolutely nothing on TV. The furnishings are somewhat neutral and the color in the room comes from the accessories and art.

The game room features a pool table and poker/game table from The Billiard Factory, as well as three TVs. There is just no limit to how much TV you can watch or how much fun you can have in this house.

The beautiful circular bar features a glass top, light fixture and cabinet doors designed by glass artist Leslie Rankin — and another two TVs.

The house features a lot of stacked stone, slate floors and dropped wooden ceilings. To soften the overall appearance, I punctuated the space with silk floral arrangements in awesome architectural containers, huge leaf balls and garden benches from Natural Touch Silks. Fresh florals were provided by We Luv Flowers.

The Gallery at Summerlin provided all of my art (as well as that of most other designers). The house is contemporary and exciting and my choices for art were fun and unexpected, including a painting of a stylized Mona Lisa smoking a cigar and a contemporary multicolored painting called The Muse, both by artist Beti Kristof. Also included is sculpture by Sharon Gainsburg and Siri Hollander. Three honest-to-gosh unused missiles by artist Leslie Rowland are on display on the mantle of the game room. Other art in the space is by Lincoln Maynard, Scott Sandell and Michael Bonakdar.

As my faithful readers know, I’m all about making the most of your decorating dollars. But for this project, we pulled out all the stops — the furniture, accessories and art in my two rooms alone are valued at well over $100,000. That doesn’t include any of the flooring, walls, finishes, lighting, electronics, or the glass work in the bar. Fantasy and indulgence, indeed.

Working on the house was exhilarating and exciting. As with any design project, often times there are frustrations, delays and mix-ups. But when the rooms are finished and you can stand back and proclaim, “I did this,” it’s all worth it.

However, it’s far from “I” did it. A huge thank you goes to the owners of the beautiful home, Mike and Rhonda Mona; SCA Architects; all of the vendors and artists; Diane Dumont and her team who did all of the delivery and installation of furniture and art; Natalie Morfin in my office for her beautiful work on our drawings and presentation board; and all of the other designers for support and encouragement. The entire house was truly was a team effort.

And now our team wants to show it off. Indulge your passions; come see us. There are just three more days. Tickets purchased through ASID will benefit the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity. Visit www.asidcanv.org or www.lasvegasparadeofhomes.com for maps and schedules.

Carolyn Muse Grant is the founding president of the Architectural & Decorative Arts Society, as well as an interior design consultant/stylist specializing in home staging. Her Inside Spaces column appears weekly in the Home section of the Review-Journal. Send questions to creativemuse@cox.net.